Textbooks Are Coming Out With Overt Political Indoctrination

Textbooks Are Coming Out With Overt Political Indoctrination: In today’s episode, we have David Bradley on to talk about how the recent textbooks coming out with overt political indoctrination are being criticized. Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government of the next.” Tune in now to learn why and how we can change our school’s textbooks.

Transcription note: As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we talk about the hottest topics of the day on policy, faith, and other areas of the culture. But always looking at those things from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. That’s the lens we look through, it’s called a worldview. And it actually will get you to the right answer on every issue if you’re looking at what history tells us about it, what is the Bible tell us about it, and how do we look at it according to our Constitution here in the United States.

We’re having our conversation today here with David Barton, he’s America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton with us, he’s a national speaker and pastor, and the president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator.

You can find out more about us and the program at two websites. The first one is our radio site – it’s called WallBuildersLive.com. It’s got a list of all of our stations, you can listen to archives of the program, and other great information there. And then also WallBuilders.com, our main website. Lots of great tools for you, I just can’t encourage you enough to go visit that website, just go look through the articles you can download for free, the DVDs and books you can purchase for yourself, and your family, and your Sunday school class, and your co-op, and your neighbors.

There’s just so much there. We can never complain about “I don’t have the tools I need to learn how to be a good citizen, or to equip my family, or my neighbors to be good citizens.” It’s all right there. Go check it out – WallBuilders.com.

Influencing Textbooks All Over the Country

Rick:

Later in the program David Bradley will be with us. He’s on the State Board of Education in Texas. We’re going to be talking about textbooks today. And David, Tim, this is a familiar fight for WallBuilders. It’s something, David, that really was part of getting you involved in the political realm. You spent many a year and many an hour working on the textbook issue right here in Texas. And then that opened the door for you to influence textbooks all around the country.

David:

It started a number of years ago in Texas as Texas was going through its cycle of writing textbooks. That’s significant because Texas and California, between those two states they have 26 percent of the nation’s public school students. So, when you have one fourth of the nation’s public school students in two states, textbook publishers pay attention to the standards that are written in those two states. Because if you can get your textbooks sold in those two states you’re going to make your money back and then you can sell it to Indiana, and Louisiana, you can sell to North Dakota, and you don’t have the same outlay of funds.

But you can’t create a 10 to 20 million dollar textbook for North Dakota when you’ve got less than a million people there. And there’s not that many students – a few hundred thousand students and you’ll never get your ten to 20 million dollars back by selling books. So, you do it for Texas and California.

So, I was involved in that process, was chosen as one of the, at that time, 12 people who helped oversee the writing of those standards. And then was chosen later as one of the six people who helped do that. So, I’ve been involved in a good while as well as in other states appointed by governors and state boards of education, and state education agencies, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction, etc..

So, this is really a big deal when you look at what’s in there because it’s what we’re training the next generation. And the way you train them from philosophy you use with them is what’s going to become government philosophy. It’s Abraham Lincoln, the quote attributed to him says, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government of the next.”

The Philosophy of the Schoolroom in One Generation…

Tim:

So, that’s why we’re very cautious at looking at what goes into textbooks, making sure it’s accurate, making sure it’s true, making sure the tone is gone out of it, that it just presents facts. But that’s just not where textbooks are right now.

And we recently came across an example that is absolutely amazing of what current history textbooks are teaching about what’s currently going on in the United States right now. Regarding, for example, the most recent presidential election and what’s happened with some of the racial riots etc.–

Rick:

Wait a minute, when you say current, so you mean the current president, President Trump? I’m sure all of the textbooks are really glowing and giving really positive reports on Trump right? Kind of like CNN and MSNBC?

David:

Oh yeah. They are glowing reports on President Obama. They really praise President Obama and what a great job he did.

So, you’re saying textbooks already– I guess we’re a year and a half in, so new textbooks would in fact reflect the new president. And you mean they don’t just give a neutral kind of “here’s the facts of who this person is and what they did”? They actually have a bias to them?

Position Over Party

Tim:

Yeah, guys, so let me jump in because I’m looking at some of the things from this textbook which is just pretty astounding. And to be fair, it’s not like Donald Trump doesn’t have some things you can criticize about him. Right? So, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, if we are a constitutional organization, which we are, then we look at things from a constitutional perspective. And so we can show things across the board.

We’re not as concerned with political party as we are with political positions. It just so happens that parties tend to have positions, so it makes it easier.

However, with this new textbook, when they talk about the presidential election they describe Trump supporters. Then they described Hillary supporters. And in the section of Hillary supporters it talks about how her supporters also worried about the mental instability of the president elect and the anger that he and his supporters brought to the nation. So, they’re bringing forefront the fact that people are worried about the president’s mental instability–

David:

And that of his supporters. So, they just not only impugn the president they impugn his supporters as mentally unstable.

Tim:

So, from his supporters it was their anger issues.

David:

Wow.

Tim:

So, the reason they supported him because of their anger issues. That goes on in another section where it talks about his Cabinet nominees were mostly highly successful business leaders who had made their fortunes and were now joining the team of another unusually successful businessman. They were largely white males more so than any other presidential cabinet since Ronald Reagan.

Why Is This Highlighted?

Tim:

Now, again, the fact that we’re highlighting white males. Well, what are we targeting today, right? The social justice movement. What’s the cause of most evil in the world? Well, white males. It’s just interesting the way that they depict this. President Obama– it kind of unfolds if you weren’t supportive of him, the people that opposed him, it says they long thought of this America of this nation as a white and Christian country. They sometimes found it difficult to adjust under President Obama because it wasn’t white or Christian anymore.

David:

So, we keep having all these racial comments setting whites against everybody else. And so whether it’s Obama, whether it’s Trump, everything is race baited for these guys.

Tim:

So, it covers black lives matter. It talks about the police force, “The nearly all white police force was seen as an occupying army in the mostly African-American town.”

David:

Wow.

Tim:

So, it’s one of these things that we talk about how our nation is very polarized. This is a textbook that’s even more polarizing.

Rick:

And we’re not talking about an editorial article in a newspaper or magazine. We’re talking about a textbook that a student is going to be required to read in a public school that taxpayers are paying for. And that student probably doesn’t know much about the issue. So, this is going to influence their view of these individuals greatly. And we’re paying for it.

David:

We’re paying for it. And one of the guys who has fought this type of battle for a long time, good friend, I’ve been through the trenches with him on a number of textbook battles, David Bradley. He’s a member of the State Board of Education of Texas, again, Texas is a key state. So, they will be bringing this textbook to Texas and they’ll try to get it adopted in Texas and if that happens, again, it goes across the nation.

So, it will be real interesting, but David Bradley has been through a number of these battles. He’ll have a really good perspective on this.

Rick:

David Bradley, our special guest. Stay with us! You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Leadership Training Program

Rick:

Hey, friends! We’ve got a great program to share with you today. It’s the WallBuilders Leadership Training Program and it’s an opportunity for 18 to 25 year olds to come spend two weeks diving into the original documents we’re always talking about here on WallBuilders Live.

Tim, you’ve already been doing this a couple of summers and seen the results of young people coming to this program. We’re going to see more of them coming this year.

Tim:

Yeah, Rick, it’s something that’s been cool to see the transformation with young people coming in. The emphasis, for us, largely is a pursuit of truth. We have a culture that doesn’t know what truth is. We don’t know what biblical truth is, or constitutional truth, or the American heritage that we have. And so we really dive into original documents and say, “Well, what did they actually write? What did they actually do? Not just what did somebody say, what is actually true, and the truth is what’s transformational.

David:

Yeah, guys. This really is a remarkable opportunity. And for those who want to spend time with us and spend time in the original documents, this is a great program. So, if you’re from 18 to 25, or you know someone who’s 18 to 25, send them to sign up for one of our three sessions this summer at WallBuilders.com/leadershiptraining.

A Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Too often today history education excludes great black heroes from the American founding. Such as Lemuel Haynes.

Haynes, though abandoned as a baby, pioneer churches across upper New England. He became the first black American to pastor a white congregation, to receive an honorary master’s degree, and to be ordained by a mainstream Christian denomination, The Congregationalist.

He was a soldier during the American Revolution and in his churches on George Washington’s birthday he regularly preached sermons honoring George Washington. Even late in his life he expressed his willingness to go back to battle if necessary to protect America, which he called, “a sacred ark.”

American history is filled with numerous examples of black heroes who are largely ignored by mainstream education today. For more information about Pastor Lemuel Haynes and other colonial Patriots go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Our guest today, David Bradley, State Board of Education here in the great state of Texas. David, good to have you on, sir!

David Bradley:

Every day’s a holiday! Appreciate it.

Rick:

Hey, man, thanks for your service to the state of Texas and the good work you’ve done on the board. You’ve seen a lot of changes on that board and gone through some big time battles especially on textbooks. And that’s why we wanted to get you on today. It looks like already in– what are we, a year and a half into the Trump administration, the new textbooks coming out, in some areas at least, are just a little biased.

If you had a chance to review this article, man, they’re saying this new Pearson textbook, calls Trump basically mentally ill and all kinds of crazy stuff. How do you guys in Texas deal with biased textbooks? And do you let those go into the classroom? How do you stop them?

The 900 Pound Gorilla

David Bradley:

Well, Pearson who is the 900 pound gorilla in the textbook market is a European company. In fact, we only have one mainstream American publisher now. And so it’s a little bit difficult to control, but in Texas we do have some leverage. If you want to market your textbook in Texas you typically will bring it before the State Board of Education in order to get a, I guess in the simplest terms, a Good Housekeeping seal of approval.

And districts like to adopt textbooks in Texas that are on what we call the conforming list because they know they’ve been reviewed, and we’ve had public hearings, and there’s been a little bit of scrutiny for accuracy. So–

Rick:

And you guys tend to make sure that those textbooks line up with what the state of Texas has said we want a diploma in Texas to mean. In other words, it’s going to cover the necessary content and not have a bunch of left wing propaganda in it.

David Bradley:

And, yeah, in order to get a textbook adopted in Texas, a) it has to have all of what we call the * – the * essential knowledge and skills. Which, for a 300 page textbook might only be a 30 page document which says these are the essentials that have to be included. And then publishers can put whatever else they want into the book to fill it. But at least we know what the minimum standards are. As to say in a history book is to dates, places, times, and events, and people that are important.

Rick:

And a lot of people around the country may not have this process in place. You guys as conservatives in Texas have fought for this for decades. Now, in fact, this was a big part of what David Barton was involved in in the 90s even is getting to this point where there is some level of scrutiny on these textbooks. And for you guys, an elected board, you’re an elected position – not an appointed position, the people of Texas have chosen you to sit on that board. And this is one of the major reasons that we know what our kids are being taught.

As Texas Goes So Goes the Nation

David Bradley:

Also, there’s a saying in the publishing industry is, “As Texas goes so goes the nation.” Because a publisher, in order to market books, wants to sell books. So, you want to cater to the largest population, or your largest market. And Texas is it – Texas, California. What they will do is they will write a book that is specifically designed to meet Texas approval because, trust me, Arkansas, and Mississippi, and Oklahoma, and all the others, publishers aren’t going to write a textbook to meet their market.

So, if you’re on the Texas adopted list then you’ll be able to sell your textbook across the rest of the country.

Rick:

So, if you guys had a textbook like this one– and has this Pearson one that we’re referring to that has all the Trump bashing in it, has that one been brought to you guys yet?

David Bradley:

Well, no that’s obviously, I think it’s a new production. We go through an adoption process for textbooks, it’s called a proclamation, and we have to budget what subject areas we want to fund in each given school year. We’re just now revising our social studies curriculum. So, this book may come to us in the next year or two.

Rick:

And you guys do that, what, about every seven years you revise those standards?

David Bradley:

Yeah.

Rick:

Or review, at least, those standards?

David Bradley:

Each subject area. We’re upcoming this next year are health, and then we’ll have social studies, then we’ll have math, and then we’ll have English, language arts.

Peeling the Curtain Back on the Process

Rick:

It’s just kind of peeling the curtain back a little bit on that process because most people realize the battles that happen for those standards. This is every seven years, roughly, you guys have to go to battle over keeping basic–

David Bradley:

Keep the stupid stuff out.

Rick:

Yeah, keep the stupid stuff out and keep the basic civics in these textbooks. You all have had to fight over even mentions of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. It’s been almost silly how far you all have had to go to just get the basics in there and keep the junk out.

David Bradley:

Well, Pearson has an interesting history with the board. When I first went on the board back in 1997, they brought forth a Algebra 1 book. Probably one of the largest markets because everybody has to take Algebra 1 for a basic high school diploma. And this book had already been publicized on a national level. Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat, had castigated the book and named it Rain Forest Algebra.

Rick:

Wow.

David Bradley:

And we got it here in Texas and it was an interesting read. There was not an algebraic equation in it until page 100, but it did have jalapeno recipes, it had a biography on Hillary Rodham Clinton, it had discussions of the Vietnam War, it had weather, environmental issues. And you kind of question why– whether it was a math book or if it was any other book– why is all the fluff in there?

Rick:

Well, because, David, you need to know all those things to be able to solve for X, right? I mean, those are–

Marketing to the Largest Market

David Bradley:

No, no, the real issue is a) they’re trying to market to the largest market. Well, think about it – if you have large urban districts where the kids don’t have the math skills when they get to the eighth grade to take an algebra 1 course and it’s a required course, what do you do with them? So, you give them something that they can do during that 90 minute period.

Rick:

I never even thought about that.

David Bradley:

Yeah.

Rick:

So, it’s a mix of the leftest propaganda and just the need to get a textbook in there that the kids that have been robbed of an education for the first nine years–

David Bradley:

That qualifies for adoption.

Rick:

Yeah.

David Bradley:

So, anyway, we’re going through the book, we’re not real happy with it and we’re having trouble. So, there are three questions that are given to the commissioner of education. And I raised my hand as a freshman board member and the education code says it has to have all the required standards, the curriculum.

So, I asked the commissioner and he turned around looked at the deputy commissioner, he went to the associate commissioner, and they came back and said, “Yes, we have checked this to make sure that it is an accurate and complete method.” I said, “ Thank you.” And I said, “What is the other standard.” Well, it has to be error free. Well, history of history books in Texas, and math books, and English books, these are always full of errors.

I don’t know if you remember the Gabler’s there in east Texas that just raked Texas administrations over the coals for lousy textbooks that were full of errors.

Rick:

Yeah.

What About the Third Requirement?

David Bradley:

But anyway, we gave the publisher a chance to correct them and the commissioner certified through the associate commissioner and the deputy commissioner blah, blah, blah, blah, that it was indeed error free and any errors that were found were going to be corrected before it was printed and distributed.

So, thus we’re supposed to vote for the book. Well, I still wasn’t happy and I said, “Well, Commissioner there is a third requirement. And he said, and I said, “What is it?” And he said, “Well, yeah, there is, it’s obscure. It’s that the binding must be suitable and the book is durable enough so that it will last in the classroom for seven or eight years.” So, I asked the commissioner respectfully if he’d checked the binding and he looked at the deputy commissioner and the associate commissioner and no, it hadn’t. So, I took it upon myself to test the binding and I tore the cover off the book.

Rick:

In the meeting.

David Bradley:

In the meeting. And all of a sudden the cry went out, “How much did that book cost the taxpayers?” And of course it was eighty dollars too much. Then the other battle cry that we threw back and said, “Well, what is the cost that this textbook is used in Texas classrooms by a 4 million population over the next decade, school population?”

Anyway, the book passed, believe it or not, because you had the squishy Republicans and of course the ever loyal Democrats who were for diversity, and perversity, and anything else that runs counter to what you and I believe and the book got passed.

But for the first time in its history a local newspaper, The Austin American Statesman, got the headline right. It said, “Board Member Divides Math Book By Two”. Pearson on the other hand did not. They got their seal of Good Housekeeping. But can you– not a single district in Texas would adopt that book because of the controversy.

Rick:

No kidding. No kidding.

The Market Took Care of Itself

David Bradley:

So, the market took care of itself. And Pearson showed up in a private jet in my little hometown of Beaumont, Texas asking, “What is it that you want? What is it that we need to do?” And I went, “Hey, how about putting some math problems in the math book?”

Rick:

Right. Right.

David Bradley:

So, here they are again. I guess they haven’t learned their lesson.

Rick:

Well, expect a private jet to show up in your small town again because I can’t imagine you and your colleagues signing off on some of the propaganda in this new one. It’s almost hilarious when you read some of these things that they’re saying. But it’s a concentrated effort to disparage one school of thought and prop up another. And so it takes eternal vigilance of our activists out there to discover these things and expose them.

David Bradley:

Well, if there’s one thing that I have learned in conservative politics is that the other side never, ever, ever, ever, gives up.

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah.

David Bradley:

They’re in it for the long haul. And I just don’t understand how their brains work. But they continue on. Maybe they have brain damage. I don’t know, I’ll get in trouble for that.

Rick:

Probably. Probably. Well, David, keep up the great work, man. We appreciate your service on the State Board of Education in dealing with these issues. Hope you’re training up and passing the torch to another good conservative mind to replace you when you retire out at the end of this year.

David Bradley:

Well, we’re going to review the social studies standards later this year and WallBuilders certainly has an invitation to come in and speak before the board and the community and irritate the other side.

Rick:

We will look forward to doing that. David Bradley, appreciate your time today.

David Bradley:

God bless. Thank you.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

America’s History

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. Since the Ten Commandments have formed the basis of civil law in the western world for over 2,000 years and an individual is more likely to find a copy of them in a government building rather than a religious one. Yet, amazingly, numerous rulings over recent years now make it unconstitutional to display the commandments in many public arenas.

Consider what Founding Father John Adams said about this, he declared, “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘thou shall not covet’ and ‘thou shall not steal’ were not commandments of heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”

John Adams believed that no society could remain civilized if separated from the Ten Commandments. For more information on God’s hand in American history contact WallBuilders at 1 800 8 REBUILD.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live. Special thanks to David Bradley from Texas State Board of Education for joining us. I’ve got to, before I go back to David and Tim, I’ve got to just add a couple of quick notes we got from some of our listeners. This one’s from Matt. He said, “You all do a phenomenal job at WallBuilders Live and I really enjoy listening to the show. I recently separated from active duty and joined the Air National Guard. Thanks for your time.”

So, many military e-mails, and comments, and calls, that we get from our military guys and gals listening from all over the world actually, but certainly here in the country as well. Matt being one of those.

One other one. This one’s from Wesley. He says, “I can’t thank you enough for your radio program it helps me settle so many disputes with others by going to the source of our constitutional rights with the resources you all have available to access.” One of the things I love about being able to be on this program, David, Tim, getting to ask you questions all the time and you all coming from those original documents that you have there in the library.

An Encouragement to Others

Rick:

So, it’s just a privilege and an honor to get to do this program with you. I want encourage others to come alongside us as well, and be a part of this team, and spread the word. Be like Matt and Wesley – don’t only listen, but share it with your friends and family so that they can get this information as well. You can do that on Twitter, Facebook, so many tools you can use.

And you can come alongside us financially as well and help to spread the program. Because every station we add thousands more people are able to listen to this program. So, be sure to check that out at WallBuilders.com. Real easy to give. You can be a monthly donor or you can just make a one time gift. And just tell us you want to partner with us and be a part of spreading the truth here on WallBuilders Live.

David, Tim, David Bradley did a great job. Obviously, he’s probably going to not go for this new book. I didn’t realize this publisher had already been through several rounds with the Texas State Board of Education.

Tim:

Well, I really appreciate the fact he identified it was a European group. There’s nothing like having somebody from Europe tell me about American history. That’s always, that’s always fun.

Rick:

Right.

Tim:

I really, actually, I really enjoy going over to Europe and telling them about their history that I learned in America about Europe.

Rick:

Right.

Tim:

It’s one of those–

David:

I don’t recall you having done that.

Why Are We Outsourcing This to Other Nations?!

Tim:

Well, it’s because I knew better. It’s one of those super weird things. How in the world are we importing books about America from other nations? Why don’t we have publishers here in America? Which is interesting, we’ve talked about before, some of the biggest funders of American textbooks are people from Saudi. Saudi money is one of the biggest contributors to American textbooks. Which is where you see, again, some of that very negative content coming in. It doesn’t make sense. Not just the crazy content in the book, it doesn’t make sense that we are outsourcing this to other nations to tell the stories about our own nation.

And now, it might be different, again, if we’re talking about like algebra, right. Well, yeah. Algebra should be the same everywhere except when you have to wait until page hundred something to actually have–

David:

I liked Bradley’s comment when they flew the plane in and said, “What do you want us to do to fix the book?” He said, “How about putting math problems in a math textbook?”

Rick:

Right.

David:

I mean, that’s common sense.

Rick:

I have some really tough hurdles for you here. It’s going to be really hard for you guys to meet my standard, here it is: put math problems in the math book.

Trapped By a Bad System

Tim:

Well, that’s one of the things that seems crazy is we have come so far in education to where there’s so much indoctrination that happens. But even to me, Rick, it seemed like you were kind of surprised by this moment, too. But I never realized that maybe the reason that in math there wasn’t so much math is because kids weren’t capable of math. I had the position that it sounds like you had as well where, “Well, they’re just trying to force this indoctrination down.” And they’re going, “Actually, no, the kids aren’t prepared for math and so we’re trying to find something else to put in the textbook.”

Textbooks Are Coming Out With Overt Political Indoctrination

Tim:

Which would, again, be a reason why we can point to so much of government run education and see so many shortcomings. And as I’m saying this, I know there are some great public school teachers that are listening, that people have great public school teachers in the family. There’s no doubt there are good people out there, but the good people are trapped by a bad system. And these textbooks are only making a bad system worse. Which is why we have to get away from this kind of stuff.

Rick:

No doubt. Folks, there’s more on this subject at our website, WallBuildersLive.com. In fact, the news feed there is very valuable for you. And you can get the articles and different publications from WallBuilders at WallBuilders.com. So, check out both of those websites today.

WALLBUILDERS LIVE! with David Barton, Tim Barton and Rick Green is a daily journey into the past to capture the ideas of the Founding Fathers of America and then apply them to the major issues of today. Featured guests will include Congressmen, Senators, and other elected officials, as well as experts, activists, authors, and commentators on a variety of issues facing America.